"BRANCHING OUT" PODCAST - JULIA CASTELLANO

Acadia National Park in Maine has a beautiful coastline and a large forest called the Northern Boreal Forest. The forest is fragile and affected by climate change. It is dominated by coniferous trees like spruce and pine, but also has some deciduous trees. The forest floor has bushes, lichen, moss, and mushrooms. Many animals and birds live there, including rare salamanders. However, salamanders are declining due to various stressors like pollution and fungal pathogens. Salamanders play an important role in the ecosystem by eating detrivores and contributing to decomposition and nutrient cycling. Their decline could have negative effects on the forest. Hello everyone, my name is Julia Castellano and welcome back to another episode of Branching Out with today's topic being Exploring the Northern Boreal Forest of Acadia National Park Acadia National Park is located on the coast of Maine of the United States According to the National Park Service Acadia stretches across 64 miles of coastline With Maine's official slogan being the way life should be Acadia National Park holds up to that standard Acadia includes the largest of the islands surrounding Maine Mount Desert Island and other areas like the Scudic Peninsula and other outer islands off the coast But I'm here to talk about the forest or more specifically the Northern Boreal Forest of Acadia National Park This topic makes me excited because of this area has one of the most beautiful coastlines in Northeastern United States and It's home to almost 50,000 acres of forest this is a fragile forest when it comes to climate change because as temperatures warm, we know sea levels rise as the National Park Service states warming waters have led to an increase in ocean invasive species that harm and outcompete fragile native ones as I will talk more about later biotic and abiotic stressors take a toll on the environment on the plants animals microorganisms and their processes So what is a boreal forest? Boreal forests meaning northern forests or the taiga biome also meaning land of the little sticks in Russian There are only six tree species that compete for this area making it one of the least biodiverse biomes It consists of two-thirds of all conifer trees and makes up one-third of all trees worldwide You can check more of this out on the YouTube video the taiga biome boreal forest biomes number seven This beautiful landscape which draws in many visitors includes mostly coniferous trees trees with needle or scale like leaves that produce cones Coniferous trees of this forest include red spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, white pine, and northern white cedar These trees are more adapted to the cold and can withstand fluctuations in climate This area also includes some deciduous trees or trees with the larger surface area that are less adapted to extreme environments like aspen and birch This northern region is dominated by conifers because they can photosynthesize more efficiently at lower temperatures compared to broadleaves living on the forest floor and among the trees bushes such as bunchberry and wintergreen and lichen, moss, and mushrooms Find enough light to survive through the dense tree canopy Many animals and birds also call this forest their home. For the bird lovers This park is one of the leading bird-watching areas in the country There is also nearly two dozen wobbler species found in the park, but there has been 338 bird species seen around 40 mammal species, 30 fish species, 7 reptile species, and 11 amphibian species Amphibian species like frogs and salamanders are harder to see harder to find as they are usually found along streams Does everyone know what salamanders are? As I mentioned previously, they're amphibian species There are these little opaque slimy looking creatures usually found near in streams in other surface waters Sometimes people will think of the spotted salamander Many studies have suggested that amphibians are going extinct worldwide Salamanders being a part of this group This makes me sad because this is just one of the many species that are being pushed out by climate change When I was looking more into this problem I found a study by Michael Bank who worked for the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard He led a study to assess the decline of salamanders in Acadia National Park This study went on for three years to look at how time contributes to salamander loss Previous data indicates that northern dusky salamanders were once widespread and common in Acadia National Park Although during the study they only found two adult northern dusky salamanders in one stream and no eggs and no larvae They found that the causes of dusky salamander decline is most likely due to both biotic and abiotic stressors Such as predatory fish, fungal pathogens, and pollution They suggested that the streams in Acadia National Park may no longer be suitable for northern dusky salamanders This study was important because it was the first to document the decline of a stream dwelling amphibian species in a national park That includes widespread mercury contamination of its surface waters You may ask why do we care about the loss of salamanders other than not wanting species to go extinct? In fact, salamanders aren't just there to look cute. They contribute a lot to ecosystem processes As Alexandra Laking, a wildlife health gent from Belgium, describes in her 2021 study salamanders influence invertebrate community interactions Salamanders eat detrivores, things like worms and millipedes Then the feces of the salamanders are found to be important in the decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest floor ecosystems Helping with the breakdown of leaf litter This is an important process for both aquatic and mammal species, but also in microbial and organic processes They found that abiotic stressors like moisture availability and biotic processes like decomposition Have impacted the population of salamanders All right, everyone that concludes our time on today's episode of branching out Exploring the northern boreal forests of Acadia National Park. I hope you learned a great deal about the forest in this area, the conifers, the understory plants and everything else you can find there Also about the decline of salamanders at Acadia National Park as you saw in Bank and Laking's studies Salamanders are essential to the decomposition processes in forests and are most likely declining due to biotic and abiotic stressors Without them could result in changes in important cycles Hopefully everyone will keep this in mind if you ever decide to visit and keep an eye out for any salamanders Thanks everyone. I hope you enjoyed and safe travels